Blue Moon/New Moon

a blue moon shone last night
wasn’t really blue
and it was cloudy
so we didn’t really see it
but they said it was there
a rare occurrence
two round full white moons in one month
white snow also fell in feathery flakes
tossed around by the winter wind
winding through streets and pathways
flakes which fell on car windshields
building up along the wiper blades
creating a frosting
blown away when the car drives
down road
leading to
the end of the month
and the end of the year
and the end of the decade
where the ocean splashes crashes rocks
and we can get on a ship
and begin a new journey
under a new moon

Gold Love

a circle of 14k
a shimmering golden band
wraps around fourth finger
left hand

narrow with
two rows of small indents on either side
forever
parallel
together

I take it off sometimes
scratching knuckle and skin
it barely fits

but it is part of hand
like a vein that leads back
to heart where
I am bound
for life with
round
smiling
vow

Seven Deadly #2 - Pride

she’s hiding
on chair
------under table

we trimmed her fur
thick
luscious
soft
grey and white

so fine that tufts
-------static to your fingers
--------------and don’t let go

it takes two to hold her
while another hums
the dreaded clippers

she lies compliant
but trembling

what we cut off
half fills the kitchen garbage

she’s hiding
because she’s embarrassed

thinking we reduced her to an ordinary cat

but she looks
much better now

we all need
regular grooming

Seven Deadly #1 - Gluttony

sweet intensity of sticky jujube invades taste buds setting
off a chain reaction of chemical effects in the body just
like a selfish lie ending in a signal to the hand to reach for
more even though all other practical and wise messages
tell it to leave the colourful confection alone fingers find
another soft surprise and pop it into waiting watering
mouth

Boxing Day

rounded------------------------------reservoir
---of clear--------------------------crystal
-----quarter--------------------filled with
------.bright burgundy catching light
-----------and projecting shadows
--------------on table in center
--------------------of room
---------------------.held
---------------------.high
----------------------.by
----------------------thin
----------------------stem
---------------------..and
------------------..wide base
-------eyes and voices crowd elegance
------.as I sip and savour another year

Christmas Storm

spinning and sliding around snowy corner
drifts and ruts piled
slanted snow whipped by wind
covers roads in white wonder

carols jingle inside van
notes piling up in drifts of
melody and warm verses
thoughts covered in sweet harmonies

hugs and greetings on arrival
familiar family swirls around
words drifting through old defences
covering cold snowy lives in have-to love

There Shall a Star

sharded stained glass surrounding cross catches eye
chorale crescendos as my hands describe
the dance of the song
“radiance beaming”
I zoom to the place of knowing
-------where glassy colours bathe the drabness in ecstasy

on Christmas Eve

the infant heartbeat breaks in
like a drumbeat in a sermon
like a new dazzling star in the black night
illuminating and bringing

Life

Living

a thin layer of ice covers pavement
on highway as
white-knuckled
I know that a sudden skid or turn
will send van hurtling in wild swerve
towards
snowy ditch

remembering Portage and patch of black ice
feet away from signpost impact

so we travel on the knife edge
of potential
and disaster
cautious but not
immobilized

SUVs and trucks with better traction
and more confident or reckless drivers
pass
sometimes sending a spray of snow
blinding with white brilliance
as we plod/plow along

veering into left-hand lane
cutting through thicker snow and drifts
I pass slow ultra-cautious drivers
adrenaline coursing through tensed muscles

through darkness
finish final stretch
arrive at the driveway
and pull in safely

Gatherings

living room old house barn in Reinland
stand up to say “wunch”
hug Oma and Opa

Oma Niebuhr’s rickety old house on Notre Dame
wrestling with Bradley on floor
lovely burgundy china

church basement in Rosenort
playing knipsbrat with uncles
thirty kids get small gift

bungalow in North Kildonan
Brad and I each got a stuffed tiger
tail ripped off years later

senior’s center in Osler
Braeden and Jocelyn held hands running
twins got passed around

four generations paperchain the heart

Winter Solstice

I nibble at my fingernails one after the other
trying to shave them down to size they always
seem too long these days and jagged maybe it’s
the cold and the darkness that makes them grow
kind of the opposite of plants that need warmth
and light but plants are in hibernation mode
now bare branches and flowerbeds covered in white
white snow the sun barely makes an appearance and
the stars struggle to shine in the early evening
the moon a sliver but on the darkest day the
first day of real winter even though frost has
encased our corpuscles for a while already and
ice covers windshields there is hope that the
light will reappear and my fingernails will stop
growing so wildly or at least I’ll use a nail clipper

Babies!

two matching pink striped sleepers
twin infant girls
small sighs escape
breathing shallow and quick

radiating heat
through clothing
------through skin
------------through years
------------------through masks
------------------------through fears
------------------------------through steel armour
-----------around heart

warmth-------works--------wonders

hold and marvel the miracle

Travel Day

world of white stretches
frost-rimed trees don’t change the view
number one highway

this day is blank slate
self-contained world in green van
time to use sharpies

evening sky darkens
coming up to Saskatoon
white crescent glows through

Christmas Break

every pencil is poised
positioned to shade in the bubbles of absence
which shape the page and trip up the feet in
the glass encased culture

gray graphite marks our days and years
every hour an arc of time
filled with squiggles or heavy thick lines
dominating the whiteness

until I see the sharpened orange dart
lying at an angle on the beige tile
under black chairs in an empty room
pointing towards the door

I pick it up
place it in the mug
and escape

Dream

I walk through wide empty hall at the top of grand
staircase limestone floors echo my footsteps elegant
string quartet playing a slow hymn at one end of the
large atrium at the bottom of the stairs and I look
down wondering where I am in my subconscious
everything so white and important so I keep walking
until I come to a panelled room door open and I look
inside the familiar furnishings recognizing that this is
my father’s empty office

Cleo Poem #5

pushes furry face
against socked toes----bright kitchen
I am not alone

Classroom

feet shuffle
occasional whisper
someone gets a text
----------unmistakable buzz of a cell on vibrate
the quiet a presence in the room

cough
sigh
zipper binder gets opened
pens and pencils move
eyes follow the lines of letters

this room with no windows
a daily sanctuary of conformity
we all are here observing convention
biding time

but sometimes the magical intrudes
and a fairy waves a wand of creative colour
and out of the silence of rustles

comes a bouquet of laughter

Zuzu's Petals

delicate yellow softness
-------the hidden reality
--------------of love

we poke fingers in our little pockets
to see if they are there

what kind of world do we live in?

sometimes it is the cold hard ice
of frozen fists fighting for
an inch of self in a loud brassy bar

sometimes it is the gentle snowfall
of open hands giving
a pound of self in a neighbourhood pub

the moon shines brightly in a synthetic backdrop

and his hands are empty

but in our hearts we see them

Copenhagen

stars poking through
on the coldest night
-30 and dropping
shockwaves through
hunched body gathered for the fight

protesters getting rowdy
streets filled
demanding action from
meek points of light in
a chilled black night

my car broke down again
today right on pembina
and I waited for the tow
the edge of my foot
is numb from the cold

My Love

hair
-----flaxen
-----------fields
--------reflecting shimmers

eyes
-----emerald
------------seas
--------enveloping shivers

skin
-----snowy
-----------drifts
--------inviting caress

heart
-----crimson
-------------cutout
--------addressing me

Hope

red and white confetti

----------drifts

---------------into a glass jar

of possibilities

--------resting
----------on
-----------a
---------narrow
--------pedestal
-----made of marble
----and polished oak

on the floor is a

Persian carpet--------which begins to float

----------------------------and elegantly glide

through the

---------arched doorway

into a whitewashed courtyard
filled with renaissance statues
rising higher and higher it becomes
part of the

bright

blueness

Alone

a silence of soul

solitariness builds a cabin
in the brain placing a padlock
on the windowless door

no one is allowed into this space of
rich contemplation
the smell of mahogany overtaking all

in the middle of the floor is a round braided carpet
where I stand absorbing the energy
of the black thick night

a fire burns in the hearth
sometimes crackling and sending sparks
but usually glowing a dull orange

there is no furniture here
just walls and the carpet and so
I open the lock and step out

inverting the world for life

Bath

I dip my foot into
warm
clear
water

and then settle in-------warmth

enveloping

voices create a music
preparing for the day
hair dryers whine
make-up on faces and eyes
beauty in care compassion
blonde hair bouncing on shoulders
strong and able
ready for the adventure
we
laugh and smile or
roll eyes and expel breath and
then hug anyway
wishing the best
expressing family

muscles relax in the lovely

bouyancy

Ode On My iPod (apologies to jk)

Thou slender silver lady of eloquence
So simple and yet so subtly profound
Millions of stories are contained within
One simple button to hear them sound

soft pillows and
--------hard iron
red velvet and
--------sweet oranges
craggy cliffs and
--------blue blue skies
hard rain and
--------black hearts
uplifted hands and
--------bruised knees
crossed swords and
--------bloody bullets
frozen rivers and
--------dusty plains
rainy windows and
--------tears descending
bonded hands and
--------fractured lives

Can so much beauty and truth be so easy?
Should it?

Winter Love

white snow crunches under black boots hunched
against harsh wind biting at face in the late
dawn of early winter everything zips up into
itself and closes up shop pulling down shutters
and drying up like a raisined grape in the
cruel dry air of December and our breath escapes
in bursts of white fog rising and dissipating
until it becomes a part of the frigidity hunkering
down replacing thin summer blankets with thick
quilts warm and cozy so when we finally shed our
sweatshirts and thick socks and find flannel we
can float in a cocoon of private summer

Peace Candle

it was the second Sunday of advent

he tried mightily

he held the flame to the wick
but it wouldn’t take

he tilted the candle
but no new fire emerged

he held the candle horizontally
but just wax melted

he melted more wax and it seemed to work
but then the small flame died

he tried again and everyone held their breath
but the light went out again

he gave up and lit a different candle
and then made a joke

nervous laughter

sometimes symbolism hurts

Creation

darkness

chaos

let there be light
and there was LIGHT
major chord ringing

singers creating Haydn creating God creating universe

induced labour
two girls being birthed
lighting Saskatoon hospital room

hearts beating with new blood new joy new life

fingertips depress keys
letters appear on blank screen
words lines take shape meaning
poem develops from black

blinking

cursor

Christmas

flakes fly freely fall
crystal white winter wonder
peacefully descends

Wednesday Nights

sometimes you come out of the hack leg pushing
slide through rings and let the rock glide upon
a thin layer of water
in a perfect curve to its resting place
where you wanted to end up

sometimes the push-off is unsteady
and you need to lean heavily
on the rock as you regain
balance
losing valuable momentum and
messing with your aim
and the polished granite
misses its mark

sometimes it is time for a shake-up
and you swing stone back
and push with force
letting go early to create more momentum
the shot staying straight and true
until there is contact and a new outlook

sometimes the plan is wrong
and even though your aim is
perfect
the result is poor

sometimes the shot is so delicate
like an arctic flower
yellow and white
that one twitch will
cause wreckage

and sometimes the sliding stone
will pick up a hair or lint and
not even make it to the other
side twirling uncontrollably to
the side boards

but always there are the sentries who travel beside
ready to influence the speed and trajectory
with the hopeful sweep

Toffifee

last taste of chocolate
-------------melts on our tongues
standing back
admire finished product
glittering glorious

------box is opened and we begin
------round morsels of caramel and
--------------dark heaven
------fill our mouths
------each bite savoured

------tree stands waiting
------lights’ random radiance
------each item has meaning

------glass angel from grandma
------wooden skier from Helen
------fish hook
------pictures
------student gifts
------all find their place in the plastic branches

------the hazelnut in the center
------waits for the appreciative crunch

lights are low and the small white glowings
create space for our lives
our memories
melting
lingering

Insomnia

…counting to one hundred two hundred
lying in a bed of thought hammering
hammering the brain lifting me out of
warmth into bare feet on carpet
stepping out of darkness into grey
light of night time life
thoughts do not follow
mind blank bursting with empty
balloons of fatigue sitting in front
of single solitary screen of virtual cards
carrying one pile to another chin in hand
eyes stinging with poisonous night air
until the descent into hammering thought and
counting…counting…

Lunch With Stephen Harper

I dreamed I had lunch with Stephen Harper

He had a steak sandwich (well done) and a glass of red wine
I had a reuben and a beer (dark)

He smiled at me and asked if I had any questions.

I asked him to do something about greenhouse gas emissions
He said no

I asked him to do something about child poverty
He said no

I asked him to allocate more of the budget to foreign aid
He said no

I asked him to spend more on the CBC
He said no

I asked him to stop giving tax breaks to the rich
He said no

I asked him to stop using attack ads
He said no

I asked him to consult more widely about government policy
He said no

I asked him to rethink our policy in Afghanistan
He said no

I asked him to resign
He said OK

Too bad it was only a dream